Topics I've Started

I've been thinking about it and can't really figure it out. Not enough information.

So, lets pick a game. For example, World of Warcraft or Diablo III.

I suppose every location starts off with a number of sketches or even matte paintings done by a concept artist. It will establish general mood and a number of key points of interest.

Then comes a level desiger and draws general maps in Photoshop, shares with game designers, draws again and so on until he can finally get his hands dirty and start building actual level.

Obviously, in World of Warcraft and Diablo III there is sculpted terrain which could be done only by level designer. But what about architecture and all other assets? Will level desiger model and texture walls, arcs, stairs and so forth? Or does he do rough sketchy 3d models for an environment artist to come forward and build high quality assets based on the level desiger's needs?

And if the level designer is responsible for building rough 3d models, how detailed should they be? For example, in Diablo III there are dozens of different kinds of walls, with or without decorations, columns, holes, ruined elements etc. Will the level designer make all those little things?

Hi, I am making a game for mobile platforms now and I have some technical questions.

Lets say, I have a hero character. He fights bad guys and may execute a combo skill which leads to an animation like this: the character pierces s monster with his sword and then lifts it to the air. How do I approach this kind of relationship between different models? I thought about a number of solutions, but they all seem to lead to somewhat improper alignment between the characters in the game.

2nd question: what is the best way to make a model for a character who might switch armor (like in most RPGs). Should I just throw all possible gear in one scene (it will also allow me to do correct skinning) and then in the game switch visibility for different kinds of armor/textures? Will this solution work properly for mobile platforms with limited amount of power?

And lastly: imagine a level for a mobile RPG game. Some of it is done using a constructor (I mean I made a number of walls and corners and stuff and just place them one after another like LEGO), but some cannot be done this way. I have long bridge-like path above a canyon and the bridge is sorta curvy and I prefer to create it bypassing constructor pipeline. So the question it, given the bridge is much longer than the screen, is it necessary to split it on chunks or will it work as huge solid mesh?

I suppose it makes sense to split it so once a part of it leaves the screen, the engine 'forgets' about the chunk and is not longer allocating memory for it. Is it correct?

I am quite interested in learning artificial intelligence for games, but I am not sure if I will like it and if I am ready to dive into it and invest monthes (for start) learning something I will not like.

So the question is, what approach should I take to do some basic AI programming and quickly achieve visible results to get the taste of it?